Angels in America Essay Essay

Tony Kushners play, Angels In America, explores the trials of the travel of human life by the development of his characters through come on the play. When Rabbi Chemelwitz says vast Voyages is this world do not any more exist. (Millennium 16) he speaks completely the partial truth. It is true that none of the characters at the funeral can touch on the resembling kind of trip Sarah Ironson made, the pilgrimage from her home to a foreign convey across the Atlantic. However, the navigate to America Sarah took and the various struggles the characters face have many fits.Instead of the physical trials of Sarahs huge voyage, they are faced with as as difficult ablaze problems that cause them to make certain choices in the swell voyage of their lives. Every character faces some psychological journey throughout the play that takes them to new places emotionally, physically, and spiritually. The best example of all trio of these journeys is introductorys development through t he play. introductorys groovy voyage is the close to obvious and widely explained of any of the characters in the play.We prototypal meet preceding at what he knows is a turning headspring in his life weighty Louis he has AIDS. He says K. S. baby. Lesion number one. (27) telling Louis he is going to die. This is clearly an immensely difficult decision or Prior because he then goes on to say how afraid he is that Louis will leave him. This is the first real step in Priors great voyage. Everything else that happens to Prior is a result of this one act. The most immediate and drastic change brought astir(predicate) by this decision is that Louis confirms Priors fears and leaves him.After Louis leaves, Prior is thrown into a deep resign of depression. His emotional struggle at this point is a perfect parallel for the initial mischances suffered by immigrants immediately after they leave home. In both(prenominal) cases, their lives are drastically changed by some decision wh ich leads to some take form of hardship. For the immigrant, it is the physical hardship of adjusting to life at sea and the emotional hardship of losing their home. For Prior, it is the physical hardship of his own body betraying him due to his AIDS and the emotional shock of needing to live without having Louis as a part of his life.The point where we genuinely work out Priors voyage is in Perestroika when he climbs the hunt down to heaven. The voyage to heaven and back is Priors physical great voyage in the play. Everything else has lead up to this culmination of his journey. Prior simply still. Still. Bless me any expressive style. I emergency more life. I cant help myself. I do. Ive lived through such terrible times, and thither are people who live through much worse, but You butt against them living anyway. When theyre more spirit than body, more sores than skin, when theyre ruin and in agony, when flies lay eggs in the corners of the eyes f their children, they live.(P erestroika 267) When Prior says this, it shows that even though he recognizes that his life is awful, and life in general can be awful, he wants to go on living. musical composition it may seem contradictory, it shuttings up working out for him in the end when he and Louis make up in the epilogue, or final chapter of Priors great voyage. Prior manages to reverse all of the bad round him, except for the AIDS, and even that he is able to beat with his wish for more life. Harpers great voyage is also another voyage in which the character taking it changes completely.She starts the play as a abject drug addled housewife, unable to even really take bursting charge of herself. This is shown in her introduction to the play. She is portrayed as a semi-mad woman who dialogue to her hallucinations more than actual people. Harper even realizes this is wrong when she says Weird obstruct happens like you, for instance. (Millennium 23) She realizes something is clearly wrong yet does noth ing about it. As the play progresses though, she gains more confidence in herself and ultimately confronts Joe about his homosexuality. She comes out and directly asks him, Are you a homo? (43) after her hallucination with Prior. This is a huge step for her because she has always had her suspicions about Joe but has never confronted him about it before. Now however, she begins to change. She gains confidence and winds up leaving Joe. It is at this point when she takes a journey with Mr. Lies to turn out to get away from her life in pertly York. Unfortunately, the hallucinations are sole(prenominal) a temporary distraction as first, Joe finds his way into them and second, she eventually comes back to her senses and is arrested for burning a tree in aboriginal Park.Finally, at the end of her great voyage, she gains enough self-confidence and assurance to make a physical voyage all the way out to San Francisco. A third character who goes on a great voyage through the play is Louis . He originally starts out unable to deal with the macrocosm of Prior having AIDS so he leaves him. However, although he left Prior, he feels truly guilty and awful about it so tries to cover it up. He first tries to bury it by not focusing on it. This is shown by his entire speech at Belize.He doesnt really want to talk about politics and racism in America, it is his way of lintel with the soul-eating guilt that is killing him. He later tries to bury it through sex, postponement going. Infect me. I dont care. I dont care. (63) He says this to a random stranger indicating that he feels so guilty, he would rather catch AIDS and die than live with his guilt. He doesnt stop after this though. He says I have to find a way to save myself. (85) indicating that although Prior is the one with AIDS, he is still only worried about himself.Finally, he continues his downward spiral with Joe. He says lets stop talking. Or if you have to talk, talk dirty. This show that he is really not worr ied in the slightest about Prior at this point and is still only worried about himself. Eventually though, he start to miss Prior, shown when he tells Joe I just need to see him again. He has the realization that he has greatly wronged Prior and goes back to try and make amends. However, Prior refuses to take him back and although they are no longitudinal lovers, he and Prior are at least back to friends in the epilogue.Louis great voyage is an emotional roller coaster in which he eventually does the right thing and makes up with Prior. All of these characters go through great voyages over the course of the play. They change emotionally, physically and psychologically due to them. magic spell Rabbi Chemelwitz may have been technically right when he said they could not go on a great voyage because they are already in America, he is speaking the literal truth. However, the play does not truly bear this out as every character undergoes some wakeless change after going through what can only be described as a great voyage.